BMW Performance Centre - Fast and Furious

Ever wondered what it would be like to drive muscle cars at high speed against the clock? Confirmed petrolhead Peter Ellegard heads to California to find out…

How many times have you watched a Formula 1 or Touring Car race and dreamed about racing a high-octane mean machine around a track?    For the past 15 years, BMW has been giving people the chance to do just that at its BMW Performance Centre in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Earlier this year, the motor giant opened the BMW Performance Centre West in the desert in California’s Coachella Valley – and I got the opportunity to try out some of its most potent motors in a two-hour driving session.    I had been attending the North America Golf Tourism Convention in nearby Palm Springs and fancied a change of pace. And, boy, did I get a change of pace…

HOT SPOT. The centre is located close to a place called Thermal – aptly named, as the thermometer had reached a furnace-like 119°F (48°C) two days earlier and was barely cooler when I visited. It is set within The Thermal Club, a motorsports country club that also encompasses two racing circuits, a central motorsports village, paddock with go-karts, plots for members’ trackside villas and a planned clubhouse complete with spa, pool, tennis and kid’s club.    Think golf country club but with racetracks instead of golf courses and villas (plots start at $250,000 and buildings average over $1 million – plus the $85,000 entry fee) featuring huge ground-floor garages and first-floor balconies to watch your neighbours race round in their expensive cars.    The BMW centre itself takes up a 32-acre corner with a 1.3-mile road course, multipurpose asphalt driving area and skidpan. A permanent base will open alongside the facility next year but we gathered in a temporary building in the main paddock.    The session began with a 20-minute orientation and safety briefing from our instructor Christopher, a racing veteran with twenty years in motorsports, with a rundown of all the cars we would be driving.    “This is Disneyland on wheels – you get to go out and drive some really fun cars at your limits and have a lot of fun,” he said, whetting our appetites, while warning us to use common sense.    Grabbing a helmet each, we walked to the first line-up of cars – the centre has 120 brand new BMWs for participants to play with. At the front was a two-door M235i coupe; like a fun little go-kart, according to Christopher, but with a powerful 325hp engine. Behind it was a red, two-door M3, and then its four-door sibling, a silver M4, both packing 431hp and both kitted out with carbon ceramic brakes, a $9,000 upgrade.    Next up was a blue M5, nicknamed ‘The Beast’ by the centre’s staff and boasting the competition package engine option to give 575hp, compared with the standard 563hp. Completing the line were two SUVs, the compact X3 and a white 440hp X6.

DRIVING POSITION. Christopher demonstrated the optimal driving position and how to hold the steering wheel – nine o’clock and three o’clock, as opposed to the ten-two position I recall from my driving lessons eons ago. He then went through some technical stuff about DSC (Dynamic Stability Control – apparently an electronic aid to help keep you pointing in the right direction), M1 button (a memory setting for suspension, steering, throttle and traction control settings) and M Dynamic Mode (something even more technical).    By now, my brain had started going into information overload mode, and as cars roared past us on the nearby racing circuit my concentration began meandering. So I didn’t take in the rather important point about gearshift modes and the dual clutch transmissions on the M3s, with gearshift paddles either side of the steering wheel.    I found out later that Christopher was telling us if the manual mode button was pressed, which we would be told to do for the timed laps in the M3s, we had to pull the paddles each time we wanted to change gear as it would not shift gear itself. I would rue missing that vital instruction…

CAR SELECTION. We were then invited to select a car each and follow Christopher round to the BMW performance course, where we would drive along a track marked out by a series of coloured cones for a couple of fast laps behind him before swapping to the next vehicle. I wanted to finish in an M3, so I chose the baby of the bunch, the M235i.    As Christopher set off and explained the different coloured cones that represented braking and turning-in zones over the two-way radios tucked in the doors, we began picking up the pace. I really enjoyed accelerating hard and then stamping on the brakes before flicking the car through the tight corners.    Jumping in the X6 next, I found it rolled disconcertingly but had plenty of oomph and a wonderfully deep, throaty roar when you put your foot down. The X3 had less power and rolled even more, while the M5 was more monster than beast. It had so much power that no sooner did I accelerate than I had to brake hard to avoid going off the course – we had been told one off-course transgression would result in a warning while two would mean sitting out the session. Both the M4 and M3 were a joy to drive, handling responsively and with plenty of muscle in reserve. 

FULL THROTTLE. After a formation drive back to the paddock, we swapped to numbered M3s, my steed being the natty gold number five. Returning to the coned circuit, Christopher told us to “take off in anger” this time, using full throttle. He also mentioned about changing gears, but as I hadn’t heard his previous explanation about the paddles, it meant nothing to me. I thought the gears would just shift automatically. After all, nobody uses stick-shift cars in America.    When my name was called, I gunned it to the first corner, wildly braking, jerking the wheel and repeating for each subsequent turn before slamming on the anchors to stop inside a box marked by red cones. My time of 30.413 seconds was only good enough for third place, though.    I managed to lower it to 29.250 seconds before overcooking it on the last flying lap and incurring a two-second penalty overshooting the box. By then I had edged up to second place, but my colleague Guillaume had streaked round in a best time of 27.749 seconds – 1.5 seconds quicker.    I asked him how he managed that… and realised I had done all six laps in first gear instead of shifting gear from the first corner! No wonder my car’s engine was screaming so loudly. He also admitted to having previous racing experience. 

SIDEWAYS. Before the prize giving, Christopher took us on exhilarating ‘hot laps’ in an M5, sending the car sideways into every corner and producing clouds of blue smoke from the squealing Continental tyres.    In addition to the two-hour session that we did, which costs $299, BMW offers one-day or two-day car control schools, at $775 and $1,550 respectively. It also provides an M School programme, aimed at teaching teen drivers road skills, and corporate programmes.    The BMW Spartanburg centre offers similar programmes, as well as off-road driving and a BMW factory tour.    As I drove, at a sedate pace, to Palm Springs Airport to fly home that afternoon I was grinning like a Cheshire cat while recalling the morning’s excitement. But I was furious with myself – if only I had thought to shift out of first gear.